No matter how you eat, bacon is a wonderful thing to have on hand. Maybe you like to fry up a few slices to have with pancakes for a blowout weekend brunch. Perhaps, in a quest to eat fewer full steaks or chicken breasts, you’re trying your hand at plant-based meals that have just a few sizzling, smoky bits of bacon thrown in for flavor. Or maybe you want to be ready for pantry-based pasta dishes like carbonara.

But if you leave bacon in the fridge too long, it will–duh–go off. And if you freeze a whole package of bacon, all of the pieces stick together, meaning you have to use the whole package all at once. What’s a cook to do?

Well, here you go: a tutorial on how to freeze individual slices of bacon, so you can grab a slice whenever you need it.

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Previously, in cooking tips:
How to Peel and Chop a Butternut Squash
The Fastest Way to Cut a Bell Pepper (also works for deseeding little guys like jalapeños!)
How to Reduce the Bite of Red Onions (for when you want onion on your salad but you don’t want fire in your belly an hour later)

Recipes that use a slice or three of bacon:
Tuscan Kale, Farro, and White Bean Soup
Salade Lyonnaise (a fast meal that is always so. damn. good.)
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Figs
Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese (bacon-optional)

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The Best Way to Freeze Bacon

You’ll need a roll of wax paper and at least two strips of raw bacon

Instructions

Step one: Unroll a long piece of wax paper onto your countertop

Step two: place one slice of bacon at the torn end of the wax paper

Step three: fold the long end of the wax paper over the slice of bacon

Step four: place another slice of bacon on top of the wax paper-covered bacon. Continue this process until all of the bacon is folded up in the wax paper. Then place the whole thing into a sturdy plastic bag, seal the bag, and place it in the freezer.

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That’s it! When you need bacon, just remove the bacon from the freezer and peel a slice off the wax paper, no defrosting necessary.